Apparatus for stereoscopic picture recording, reproducing, and the like



G. W. WALTON Nov. 19, 1935.

APPARATUS FOR STEREOSCOPIC PICTURE RECORDING, REPRODUCING AND THE LIKE Original Fi-led March 10, 1932 2 Sheets-Sheet l ||||||Lll|| ll Nov. 19, 1935.

APPARATUS FOR STEREOSCOP IC PICTURE RECORDING, REPRODUCLNG AND THE LIKE Original Filed March 10, 1932 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 gill/1111A G w. WALTON 2,021,162

" Patented N v 9', 935

APPARATUS FOR BTEBEOSCOHO PICTURE RECORDING, PRODUCING, AND THE George Walton, London, England on m 10, ms. Serial No. mm.- In GreatBrltain February 19, 1981. Renewed.

m s, 1m

s cum. (Cl-88 16.6)

The pruent invention .relates to stereoscopic picture recording, reproducing and the like and to apparatus therefor.

The invention provides improved means fol." 5 forming multiple pictures such as can be used for producing ic or natural colour effects in picture recording or reproducing and also in television and the like.

The invention makes use of optical means which can produce, from an object, that kind of image which will be referred to as a stixograph, in which all the elemental areas of the object are deployed in such a manner that they do not overla'p one another regarded in at least one direction in the surface in which the stixograph is formed. Wheretheiineofdeploymentisnotgreatly curved therefore, there can be drawn, in at least one direction, parallel lines each through not more than'one of the elemental areas. Usually the optical means are such that;in the image, adjacent lines of the object are longitudinally relatively to one another. 1

Methods and means for producing stixographs from two dimensional images, and vice vans, are i described inmy patent. specifications, Serial Nos.

400,883, illed October 19, 1929 and426,344,' flied February 8, 1930.

P According to the pruent invention, there are provided optical means adapted to prdduce a plu- .larealimageoftheima'geatl. Eachlamina rality of stixographs from an object.

l' s m p urno ithestixograph'saretwcin number and represent cally related view points of the object and forother purposes the stix'ographatwo or more in number, are formed in difiermt The stixographs are intermixed, that is to 887, portions of one stixograph are interposed between portions of another.

In order that the invention shall. be more clearly 'underst00d,'it will be described making reference to the accomp ny! drawings, in which: Fig. 1 shows a plan view of the optical arrange ment for producing double intermixed stixo Fig. 2 shows a side elevation of Fig. 1', Fig, 8 shows a form of double object lens, 1 Fig. 4 snows another form of multiple, object Fig. 5 showsn multiple object lens'for'natural colour pictln-es,

Fig. 6 shows a modification of Fig. 1 when using the object lens of'liig. 5, Fig. I shows the relation between i double stixographand a normal picture;

Fig. 8 shows the'relatlon. between a triple stixograph and a normal picture. I

In Fig. l which shows a plan view of the optical arrangement, an object I is viewed by an object lenssystemiandlconsistingofaportionlinthe 6 form of two cylindrical lenses side by side with their axes at right angles to the plan view, and a portion 3 consisting of one cylindrical lens with its axis at right angles tothe axes of 2. Images which are produced by cylindrical lenses will be 10 referred to for convenience as cylindrical images. As the portion {has no optical power in the dimension shown in Fig.1, the portion 2 will form a real image of the object I at I.

'Ihisimageisofcourseonlyfocussed-inthel plane of the paper in Figure 4. The image will, however, be double, one image being formed with each of the components of 2. f

In order to explain the action of the echelon device 0 the operation of the apparatus will first $0 be described that only one lens is-used at I. The echelon device 0 is of the type fully described in applications Serial Nos. 400,883 and 426,844 referred to above, and comprises a num'- ber of lenticular laminae arranged in staggered 2 formation with their axes parallel to one another.

The number of laminae is chosen according to the detail required. Each lamina views the image at I through a iield lens- 5 and will-form at will therefore form an image of .one line of the.

- object I. 'So far as the plane of Fig. 2 is concerned, which is a side elevation of the arrange-- ment of 1, the lens portion 2 has no power and theportion Ii views the image l'forming 35 through the field lens 5 a real image on the front surface of the echelon 6. Thus -so ,far as the plane of Fig. 2 is concerned, ali'light entering each lamina.v is confined to that lamina by total internal reflection and the brightness of the 40 emerging light will bean average of the light entering the lamina. The effect of this is that each lamina producesat I an image of a 1ine, say a horizontal linepof the cbjectand this line image'iis such that the density or brightness in 45 each vertical band of the line image-is uniform and representative of the average density or together focus an image at I and that the lenses i 3 and 5 together locus an image at the entrant surface of the echelon 6, the images of elemental areas of the object appearing in the stixograph will be focussed in the plane of Figure 1 and will be without definition in the plane of Figure 2. Since the brightness of the line images perpendicular to their lengths is uniform (on account of the absence of deflnitionin this direction) and since these images do not overlap one another, each line image can be enlarged to any desired extent in a direction perpendicular to its length without altering its function as an image representative of the object I. Each strip of the object may be regarded as composed of a single row of elemental areas and, in the line image, each of these elemental areas is represented by a line or narrow strip perpendicular to the length of the line image and of any desired length.

One advantage of these line images or stixographs in television is that it is only necessary to scan the stixograph in one direction (approximately in the direction of the line images) and in one complete traverse of the line image in one direction, the whole of the original object will have been scanned. Further the rate of scanning is very small compared with normal television systems because it is only necessary to scan the stixograph say twenty times per second.

In cinematography, the stixograph is iocussed upon a sensitive film which is moved continuously in a direction approximately perpendicular to the direction of the line images. Each elemental area oi the stixograph then traces on the film a line parallel to the direction of motion thereof. It the particular elemental area remains of constant brightness then the line traced will be of constant brightness. It the brightness of the area changes (for exam le due to movement of the object) then the brightness of the line traced will change. It will be noted that the-- position of anyelemental area in the object is represented in the stixograph by the position, transverse to the length of the illm, oi the line representing that elemental area. The dimension parallel to the length of the film is the time dimension. This arrangement has many advantages one or which is that the reproduction oi moving scenes is truly continuous and not, as in normal systems, dependent upon a succession of independent pictures.

In reproducing a normal two-dimensional picture from a stixograph, apparatus similar to that shown in Figures 1 and 2 is used inverse1y,- the illuminated stixograph being arranged at I and the two dimensional image being formed at I.

Referring now to the actual arrangement according to the present invention shown in Figs. 1 and 2, where the lens system 2 is double, the stagger of the laminae in the echelon is made greater than in the case above described andeach lamina then produces two line images, side by side, of each line of the object I. The form of these double stixographs will be described more fully later in connection with Figure 7.

It will be appreciated that the apparatus may be of any'type capable of forming a stixograph, the only diflerence over the apparatus disclosed in my above mentioned applications being in that portion of the object lens, which forms, or takes part in the formation of the cylindrica image (preferably those which are parallel formed by the steps oi the echelon device) this diilerence consists in that portion. 1. e, Figs. 1 and 2 being a multiple lens. Hus may be double, triple, or in fact any number aEEE lenses according to the multiplicity of the picture required. For stereoscopic work it will be double, and for natural colour purposes it will generally be triple. The manufacture or this multiple lens can be accomplished in any of a 5 number of ways, for instance as shown in Figs.

3 and 4. v

In Fig. 3 she object lens comprises the portions 2 and 3 of Fig. l, and consists of one lens. one surface oi. which has a single cylindrical curva- 10 ture 8, and the other surface has two cylindrical curvatures 9 and H), the axes of 9 and I0 being preferably at right angles to that of I.

Fig. 4 shows a cemented arrangement consisting of a portion II, which is plano-cylindrical, and three portions i2, I3 and I4, also planowylindrical, the portions I 2, I l and I having their plane surfaces cemented to the plane suriace of .II in such a manner that the axes 01 H, II and H are preferably at right angles to that 01' ll.

It will be appreciated that the invention is by no means limited to the particular form 01 object lenses described, for any combined arrangement of lenses having the eilect 01' a single cylindrical lens with its axis parallel to the laminations oi the 85 echelon device shown in Figs. 1 and 2 and acting together with any number of separate lens systems, displaced from each other in directions substantially parallel to the axis of the first single lens and each having the elect of a cylindrlcal lens with its axis substantially at right angles to the axis of the first single lens, may be used to accomplish the purposes of this invention.

Fig. 5 shows in plan view a multiple object lens for the purpose of obtalningthe on, re- 86 ception, recording and reproduction of pictures in natural colours of atype similar to that shown inFig.4, having a singlelens lLnnd ihrcelenses l2, l3 and I4 at right angles thereto. In this case however, the lenses l2, l8, and I4 are in echelon and natural coloured filters are interposed between H and l2, l8 and II, la instance a red illter ll, between I! and II, a green filter I. between II and II, and a blue filter ll between II and II, so that each otthelenses It, ll'and ll williorm animageinonecolouronly, the whole lnmgement helm cemented or clamped together in any convmient way.

The obiectlensotl'lg.5maybe medinthearrangementshowninl'lgnl and2,oranysimilar arrangement, but in such acsse apicture recorded and reproduced will have both W and natural colour characteristics, ,and therefore it required only for natural coloun, it b preferable touseanarrmgementssshowninthcplanview in Fig. 8.

Inl'lg.8 anadditionallens lland' m is used. which forms a'vertical virhnl image oiarealimage l,whichisvilwedthrmmhthelms llbythelensesIandlo!atypesimilnrtothe formshowninl'lgitoi'ormatripleilllnsawhich isthen viewedbythecchelondcvlce tool-ma multiple one dimensional'inuge otl. lens I isshownasanechelonlensotl'lg.5andcchelon devices ottwoorthree steps (gmernllythemnximum required in practice) my always iniormingmultipleimngcafcrfllelapimtcgratcsllghtfromallthestepslothasenchhmmation of Orcceiveslighti'runeochinmge.

V Thenrrnngementsolflgs. Lawson 1o shownasproducingalflmlnphllmgehunon objcctLbutitwilldcoursebem stixograph with the same degree deilniti'on. The invention is therefore of great advantage in In order that the nature of the multiple stixographs formed according to this invention shall be more clearly understood, Fig. 7 shows at 20 a normal two dimensional picture divided into eight strips II, 22, 23, 24, I5, 26, 21 and 28, and-29 shows the multiple stixograph equivalent of 20, from which it will be seen that the strip 2| appears in the stixograph as two adjacent sections Ila and Ilb, and similarly all the other strips 0! ll, producing two intermixed pictures, the first consisting of all the 11 sections, and the second consisting of all the b sections. In Fig. 8 is shown a triple stixograph, where 20 is again a normal picture divided into strips and 30 is the multiple stixograph, but in this case each strip, such as II of 20, appears in 30 as three adjacent sections ila, ill) and lie. Similarly with all the strips in 2., so that 30 consists of three intermixed pictures of 20, all the :1 sections forming one picture. all the b sections another and the 0 sections a third picture, and therefore it is possible readily to arrange that the a picture shall correspond to a red picture of 20, the b picture to a green picture or 20, .and the 0 picture to a blue picture of 20, so that a normal picture in natural colours may be reconstructed by the use of. 30, and'suitable arrangements for projection.

It will be noted that the apparatus according to the present inventionis such that there is required only one echelon. device containing laminae equal in number only to the number of strips into which it is desired to analyze the object. Each laminmiorms a multiple image of the particular strip of the object with which it deals. so that the echelon device itseli is identical with that which would be used for forming a single obviatingthe multiplication of the echelon device.

The invention has many applications in television picture telegraphy and cinematography where stereoscopic or natural colour reproductions of pictures are required. For instancedn television stereoscopic reproductions are important, when it is desired to visually supervise some distant scene, and it will not always be to have specially constructed apparatus,

" echelon device.

axes spaced apartand parallel to one another, another of said systems comprising a plurality of cylindrical lenses and the other'said system 1 comprising a cylindrical lens, the lenses of said echelon device and the lenses of the secondmen- 5 tioned system having their axes parallel to one another and co-operating in focusing; in one direction, multiple images of strips of said object, said multiple images being equal in number to the number of lenses in said second system and the lens of the third mentioned system talrlng part in iocussing an image of said object close to the entrant surface of said echelon device.

2. Television, cinematograph and the like apparatus operating by dividing an object optically into strips and forming a plurality of images of each of said strips and having optical means comprising three systems of cylindrical lenses, said systems being arranged in spaced relation along the optical axis or said, apparatus, one --of said systems being an echelon device comprising aplurality of cylindrical lenses'at least equal in number to the number of said strips and arranged with their axes spaced apart but parallel to one another, another 01' said systems comprising cylindrical lenses equal in number to the number of said images and the other said system comprising a cylindrical lens, the lenses of said echelon device and the lenses of said second mentioned system having their axes parallel to one another and co-operating in iocussing, in one direction, multiple images of strips 01. said object, said multiple images being equal in number to the. number of lenses in said second system and the lens of the third mentioned system having-its 85 axis inclined with respect to the axes of the other said systems and taking part in iocussing an image of said objectclose to the entrant surface of said echelon device. i

3. Television, cinematograph and the like ap- 40 paratus operating by dividing an object optically into strips and iorming a plurality of images of each of said strips and having optical means comprising three. systems 0! cylindrical lenses, said systemsflbeing arranged in spaced relation 46 along the optical axis or said apparatus, one of said systems being an echelon device comprising a plurality oi cylindrical lenses at least equal in number to the number of said strips and arranged with their axes spaced apart parallel to '60 one another and in the same plane, mother of said systems comprising cylindrical lenses equal in number to. the number of said images and ar-' ranged with their axes spaced apart parallel to one another and lying in a plane parallel to the 68 said plane of the axes of said echelon lenses, and the third said system comprising a cylindrical lens, the lenses of said echelon device and the lenses of the second mentioned system having their axes parallel to one another and co-operat- Q ing in iocussing, in one direction, multiple images of strips of said object, said multiple images being equal innumberto the number of lenses in said.

' second system and the lens of the third mentionedsystem taking part in iocussing "an im l I ot-said object close to the entrant oi said clones wnnsu wines. 

